Europeana

Your favourite GIF-making competition is back! For the fifth time, from 1 – 31 October, all GIF-­makers, cultural heritage enthusiasts and lovers of the internet are invited to create brand new GIFs by remixing copyright-free and openly licensed material from Europeana, Digital Public Library of America, Digital NZ and Trove. HOW TO PARTICIPATE? 1. Find an inspiring piece of […]

No literary figure has stood the test of time quite like King Arthur. His story has inspired people across Europe for centuries. King Arthur: a Legendary Figure The earliest reference to Arthur can be found in ‘The Book of Aneirin’. Originally composed in the 6th century, Aneirin’s poem ‘Y Gododdin’ discusses the battle of Catraeth […]

Europeana Migration brings together digital collections dedicated to the theme of migration to, from and within Europe, sourced from both cultural heritage institutions and the public. When Museum Burg Posterstein invited us to take part in their blog parade #SalonEuropa, which asks writers to consider what Europe means to them, the obvious thing to do […]

It was in January 2014 during our second series of Europeana 1914-1918 collection days in Berlin that a very special and unique contribution to our project was made: the richly-illustrated manuscript produced by German prisoner of war (POW) Ernst Kleiber, while he was in Russian custody in Central Asia. Page from Kleiber’s manuscript, Europeana 1914-1918, CC […]

This poem about living and loving in medieval courts was both very popular and controversial in the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance. Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, ‘Le Roman de la Rose’ (Paris, 2nd quarter of the 14th century) Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Français 1572, f. 3r, No […]

Many noteworthy authors were put on the Index librorum prohibitorum because their works were seen to cause religious, political and moral controversies. Famous names on the Roman Index include: – Greek and the Roman authors like Ovid and Petronius – religious reformers like Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, and Jean Calvin – humanists like Erasmus of […]

On September 8, International Literacy Day, established by UNESCO, is celebrated around the world. This year’s theme is ‘Literacy and skills development’. Literacy is strongly connected to improving people’s life and the growth of societies but they are still persisting challenges despite the global progress. For several weeks on this blog we have been exploring how […]

If your social media feed is anything like mine, this week it’s been full of photographs of children dressed in school uniforms and big grins, ready for their first days at new schools. Their uniforms have been bought with growing room, so they all look tiny, swamped in swathes of grey, navy and black Teflon-coated […]